BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

randipoet I had to watch "Alien Planet" for my Introduction to Science Fiction class and let me tell you, I paid for that grade with bits of soul that I can never get back. The real crime is that this might have somehow worked if they had just made it into a film about space exploration, but as a "documentary" it plods along infinitely and mercilessly. There are only so many stories-tall aliens I'm willing to believe in, even in science fiction. There are only so many robo-life threatening situations that I'm willing to choke down. The real problem here is that there isn't ever a point that is being made. There is nothing to care about and there's no reason to watch. The protagonists are emotionless droids and the creatures encountered on the planet are silly to shark-jumpingly implausible. They're so implausible that they jump the shark, bite it in half, fly into the sky, reverse time by flying around the sun, and then coast lightly into theater seating where they eat Twizzlers at a Van Halen concert.I feel bad for the real people that appeared on the screen during this project, some of whom might previously have been considered respectable. It can only make them look one way to have appeared in this mess, and that way, my friends, is bad.

ThurstonHunger ...just don't live in it. Yet?The film may not be for self-proclaimed serious scientists....or for "serious creationists"...but for curious six year olds this was more than watchable and raised interesting questions in the xenobiological realm. So for me, as their Dad it was a success.But even for all those serious science fans, with the commentary of Hawking, Kaku, Venter...what is the quibble about? Admittedly we are talking about something that if it happens will happen well after my children's children are dead, but trying to estimate what might be still is fun, and ideally incentive enough to continue to search the stars. Kaku works in a message of how rare and treasured life should be, even here on our own planet. Have any of the participating scientists rebuked this film?As for all the "serious creationists", I still think this movie is more captivating than a discussion of how many angels could dance on the head of a pinhead. The probes, with their wide eyes and narrow dots inside, gave a nice illusion of shock as each new creature was unfurled. The DVD came packaged for the sake of TV with commercial inserts, and sneak previews for something coming in the next three seconds. I found that a bit annoying.Anyways, I can see some of the criticism, overly sleek animation leaves the creatures devoid of texture...more insight into the animals behavior (eating, socialization)...but I think this was mostly a chance to introduce the basic concept of life on another planet (hence disappointing to the two groups above) and a chance to display Wayne Douglas Barlowe's artwork...with whom I was regrettably unfamiliar, so I'll look forward to sharing some of his library books with the boys.Not sure if he has done illustrations for the Book of Revelation, but that might appeal to some.Yours for heresy and fantasy,Thurston Hunger7/10

Scarlata1966 I just love this program and watch it quite a bit. Not only is it full of very imaginative creatures, but it does so logically. The makers realize that a biosphere of a planet must follow the rules of evolutionary descent and unity of common body plans. Things like bipedalism, bioluminescence and facial shape are kept consistent through all of Darwin IV's creatures. Their oddly shaped "eyes" are really creepy looking, kinda looks like the thing that Alec Baldwin turned himself into in BEETLEJUICE. Some of the creatures are bordering on the far-fetched, but they're so well-conceived and fun, who cares. My only criticism would be the name Darwin IV. It just seemed a little too obvious.

tauceti96 An intriguing and engaging exploration of an alien world. The CGI was excellent all around with some breathtaking views of the flora and fauna of Darwin IV, a world about 6 light years from earth. It really was fun to watch. The achilles heal alluded to in the summary is the overly optimistic view of our ability to build the software necessary to carry out this venture. I'm a programmer with 12 years experience and I can tell you in no uncertain terms we are not even close to being able to program an AI like Leo. Every "breakthrough" in software development productivity since the move from assembly to C in the early 1970s has been a big gimmick. We need at least one and probably two massive breakthroughs on the same order to pull it off and I gotta tell you, I haven't seen any sign of it even on the distant horizon. Maybe someday this trip will be feasible, but not until software construction is as second nature as bridge building.Still, all in all, definitely worth watching.